A birthday bash to mark The Bard’s many works

On April 26, at 4pm, the RSC will stage a Birthday Bash concert of live music in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

It will feature music written for previous RSC productions and the forthcoming summer season, interspersed with speeches and extracts from Shakespeare performed by actors who have a close association with the RSC.

Around 20 of the RSC’s musicians, along with guest instrumentalists and vocalists, will treat the audience to music from productions.

They include Henry V (1951, composer Leslie Bridgewater) which featured Richard Burton in the title role; Othello (1999, composer George Fenton, and 1948, composer Ann Carbutt); The Merchant of Venice (1987, composer Guy Woolfenden) and Henry IV (2014/15, composer Paul Englishby). Rufus Wainwright’s setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 will also be part of the programme.

On the day before (Saturday), a series of events will include storytelling sessions, crafts, street theatre, puppetry, stage-fighting workshops, theatre workshops and the chance to discover how fake scars and bruises are created.

For details, visit RSC